Chuck Hagel’s Winding (Pentagonal?) Path to the Pentagon Begins Today

Blink and you’ll likely have missed John Kerry’s warp-speed confirmation as Secretary of State. To no one’s surprise, the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sailed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Q&A; the ex-senator was confirmed by the Senate by a wide margin. Next up in the Obama cabinet re-stocking: Chuck Hagel, whose path to the Pentagon is probably not going to be so simple.

The Secretary of Defense hopeful “will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning for what is likely to be a combative confirmation hearing focusing on Iran, Israel and the American military’s role in the world,” The New York Timesreports. A major part of Hagel’s pre-nomination prep work involved kissing the (glow-in-the-dark novelty) ring (won during a limbo contest) of Chuck Schumer, the Jewish senator who recently emceed America’s largest-ever bar mitzvah. Hagel impressed Schumer enough to earn an endorsement, despite the former Nebraska senator’s poorly received criticism of A.I.P.A.C. from a few years ago.

Other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee include Hagel critics John McCain and Lindsey Graham, the creepy best-friends duo who appear to have been assigned to every existing senatorial committee. Unsolicited tip to Chuck Hagel: favorably compare the Israel-America friendship to that of McCain and Graham. It’s a guaranteed confirmation.